A pink heart from abroad

Mike and Marilyn Subritzy, pictured around the time Mike returned from peacekeeping duties in Rhodesia.

Retired professional soldier Mike Subritzky was one of 72 peacekeepers from New Zealand sent to Rhodesia in the late 1970s.

Supplies were flown in to the men in the jungle on a pink parachute.

Mike had cut a piece off the parachute into the shape of a heart and sent it to his wife Marilyn for Valentine’s Day. Marilyn treasured it.

During that time in Rhodesia, Mike wrote a poem and published a poem dedicated to Marilyn.

Mike is a well-known war poet who has been acknowledged by the Polish government for his contribution to preserving Polish heritage in New Zealand.

I Thought of You

By Mike Subritzky

I thought of you this morning beloved

in the shattered dawning light

as we “stood down” from the alert

and I secured the starlight scope;

and we rested from last night.

I thought of you later beloved

as Pete Shaw (the medic) and I

checked African kids for scabies

and pregnant African mothers

and old African men with TB...

who were waiting to die.

I thought of you just after 12 beloved

as we stopped to wash and take a break

but then they brought the wounded guerrillas in

from Francistown; with blood

and bile and bandages...

and then I thought no more of anything.

Rhodesian War - 1979-80.